Mr. Sandman, Bring Me a Dream...

Not only can I not get either of my children to sleep, the dog has joined in the fray.

It's taken over two hours to get Kaycie to sleep the past two nights.

Luke's been staying up past midnight (as in 1:30-2:30am) lately. Then waking up every two to three hours begging to eat but only taking a couple of ounces before passing out again.

And of course Kaycie is still waking up from nightmares most nights.

Last night I had a little break between Luke falling asleep at 1:30 and waking up again at 3:30, so of course Casper woke me up twice. Because he has a death wish.

Speaking of death, who told my daughter about dying? One night over the weekend she woke up and I asked her if she had a bad dream. She said yes. I asked her what it was about and she said she was dying. HUH??? Yesterday I told her it was time for nap and she said, "No, I'm not dying." Ummm...  the only mention of dying in our house has been in reference to the battery on her tablet. I'm not sure how she would have made the connection from that to herself, so I'm thinking she picked it up somewhere else??? No idea. Totally stumped on that one.

It doesn't help that they're both sick. And let's not even talk about the time change this past weekend.

As a result of being in a sleep related Hell, I've resorted to drinking coffee most mornings, something I haven't done in nearly 15 years. Hopefully when this is over I won't have much trouble breaking that habit again, because we can't afford it. Coffee is expensive.

Finally, I'm experiencing a tiny bit of stress (compared to the enormous stress of sleep issues lately) over my brother's wedding this weekend. I'm supposed to be taking pictures and I just don't have a lot of confidence in my skills. I mean, I take cute pics of my kid, but that's easy and if it's really off one day I can always try again later. This time around there's adults and posing them and more of a one-shot mentality. And really bad indoor lights. And at least one uncooperative subject (i.e. my brother) and potentially uncooperative weather (i.e. no sun or outdoor photos). I know it'll be ok, but I want it to be good. I want enough good pictures to be able to put together a little photobook for them. That may not happen. Especially if I haven't slept in over week.

I'm going to stop whining now. I've been told that God doesn't give you more than you can handle but it occurred to me in the middle of the night last night that He'll clearly push you to the very edge before letting up. I'm there. I had two minor meltdowns last night over the sleep thing. Figure a major one is not far away.

And I should totally point out that I know it could be much, much worse. Kaycie could be less accepting and more jealous about Luke. As it is, she's think he's pretty novel and likes to help. She doesn't get very jealous and has only gotten  mad at me once for not immediately stopping his lunch to play with her. And let's face it, Luke could still be in NICU. Or worse, he could have last long term issues from brain tissue damage. So it could definitely be worse.

Did I mention it's spring break so Kaycie doesn't get to go to school this week? And it is supposed to rain all week? 'Cause that makes it better...